Minister Babu Lal Nagar quits over rape charge

Another tainted minister in the Ashok Gehlot cabinet, Babu Lal Nagar, was forced to quit on Thursday following rape allegations levelled against him by a married woman he had known for sometime.

| TNN | Sep 20, 2013, 07.13 AM IST

JAIPUR: Another tainted minister in the Ashok Gehlot cabinet, Babu Lal Nagar, was forced to quit on Thursday following rape allegations levelled against him by a married woman he had known for sometime. The demand for the Congressman's arrest and an inquiry by a central agency has now gained momentum.

Nagar, who held the khadi and dairy portfolios, sent his handwritten resignation to the chief minister in the morning when he was leaving Jaipur for Barmer to oversee preparations for the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's scheduled programme at Pachpadra on September 22.

"I have resigned so that there is no question mark on the impartiality of the police investigation against me. I dismiss the allegations and want to state that it is a conspiracy by my rivals to malign me and my party," Nagar told reporters at his government bungalow in the Civil Lines where the crime is alleged to have taken place on September 11.

In response to a question, he categorically stated that he did not resign on the moral grounds, but was doing so only to shut up those alleging that he was trying to influence the probe. Nagar asserted that the chief minister did not ask for his resignation. Sources said there was pressure from Congress seniors for his exit to shield the party against the opposition's attack in the assembly elections just two months away.

Before Nagar, two other ministers in the Gehlot government — Mahipal Maderna and Ram Lal Jat — had to step down following similar allegations of sexual harassment of women known to them. Maderna, along with his fellow Congress legislator Malkhan Singh Bishnoi, was later arrested as the victim woman—a government nurse—was found to have been kidnapped and murdered.

Even as the victim and the women's organisations have called for immediate arrest of Nagar, the state police's CID (crime branch) investigating the case appeared to be buying time.

The investigations failed to get the victim's statements recorded before a magistrate on Thursday. The CID men spent the entire Thursday getting a medical examination conducted on the woman at the SMS hospital and picking up forensic evidences from the crime spot at the Civil Lines bungalow . No police protection was provided to her family even though she told media that the minister's men have threatened to even kidnap her minor child.

The state police, which allegedly turned away the woman initially, had to initiate probe against Nagar after a metropolitan magistrate's court ordered for it.

Evidence galore to nail accused, says lawyer

The victim's lawyer said the case against Nagar was made of evidence, not just allegations. He said in the court complaint, the woman had mentioned about physical violence. She had also mentioned about a bite mark on her body. He said her clothes could prove to be clinching evidence. The CID, CB team had seized the clothes worn by the victim on September 11, the day when the incident took place.

Divya questions govt's stand behind CID probe

PCC member Divya Maderna questioned the state government's intentions behind avoiding a CBI probe. "Resignation is not enough. It is essential to ensure justice. I strongly appeal for a CBI probe," she stressed. "My father (Mahipal Maderna) was not named in the FIR, still the probe was swiftly handed over to the CBI. Nagar has been named in the FIR, but the case has been given to CID-CB ," she added.

'It is a political conspiracy'

The woman was allegedly raped on September 11, while the case against the minister was registered on September 17. It took one more day for the police to being the probe and secure material evidences of the crime.

Nagar, meanwhile, continued to attend public functions in his constituency Dudu near Jaipur and declaring to teach a lesson to his rivals. "The conspirators behind the allegations against me are criminal minded people, the land mafia and the cobra gang of Phagi (a town in his constituency)," Nagar said.

The Congress legislator emphasised that he was being targeted because he belonged to the Scheduled Caste (SC).

"I have won three assembly elections and am in a strong position to win the coming fourth one too. My rivals hold a grudge against my growing political stature and so have stooped to the level of getting fake rape allegation levelled against me," Nagar said in self defence.

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